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Saturday, August 20, 2011

Truth is not subjective

In this opinion site, I often take shots at PostMedia dailies for failures to contribute intelligently to a broad discussion of community issues. The conduit between the Fraser Institute and the Vancouver Sun - a channel for both ideas and people loyal to those ideas - clearly illustrates the Sun's aims and motivations. I read online newspapers from around the English speaking world and there remain some very good ones and there is a decent chain in the USA - The McClatchy Company.

". . . the skeptical reporter that remains in me, even after 19 years as an editor. . . .it was at the heart of who I.F. Stone was, what his legacy to us is and what's been missing in American journalism in recent years, not just in the coverage of the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq, but also in our coverage of the Wall Street machinations, congressional abdications and regulatory alterations that have brought our economy and the well-being of so many Americans to the present precipice."

"I.F. Stone wrote that he was 'an independent capitalist, the owner of my own enterprise, subject to neither mortgager, factor or patron ... beholden to no one but my good readers.'

"Not once — not one time — has [McClatchy's newspaper management] second-guessed our editorial decisions or our stories, even when bigger and better known news organizations were reporting the opposite. Not once has either of them bent to any political or economic pressures or let any of the heat that they've taken trickle down to us."

". . . we sought out the dissidents, and we listened to them, instead of serving as stenographers to high-ranking officials . . ."

"Power and money and celebrity can blind you. Somehow, the idea has taken hold in journalism that the value of a source is directly proportional to his or her rank, when in my experience the relationship is more often inverse."

"Instead of being members of the Fourth Estate, too many reporters have been itching to move up an estate or two. . ."

"Being an outsider, a gadfly, a muckracker, isn’t always as much fun as being an insider, a celebrity journalist on TV and the lecture circuit. Worse, in these troubled economic times for the news media, it makes enemies, sometimes powerful ones, and it can offend readers, advertisers — and, as conditions in our business continue to worsen — potential employers in public relations and other industries."

"There was simple laziness: Much of what the Bush administration said, especially about Iraq and al Qaida, made no sense, yet very few reporters bothered to check it out. They were stenographers; they were not reporters. . . very few reporters checked out their stories, and too many just ran with what they were handed. Instead, they handed bullhorns to people who already had megaphones."

"Harry G. Frankfurt, an emeritus professor of philosophy at Princeton, puts it this way in a marvelous little book called, "On Truth" (which is the sequel to "On Bullshit"): "It seems ever more clear to me that higher levels of civilization must depend even more heavily on a conscientious respect for the importance of honesty and clarity in reporting the facts, and on a stubborn concern for accuracy in determining what the facts are.""

"That is what I.F. Stone always sought to do, and I think it's what journalists should always strive to do. If, in the short run, doing so seems costly, I think we've all seen, in Iraq, in Afghanistan and now on Wall Street and on Main Street, that the costs of not doing so are far greater."

I believe that most long time Vancouver journalists and quasi-journalists lack the courage of I.F. Stone and choose to be blind to valid criticisms of their work, blinded by power, money and celebrity. They have arrogance that seems to preclude honest self-evaluation.

Can anyone imagine any British Columbia newspaper people making a speech like that of John Walcott? Could you Vancouver Sun Publisher Kevin Bent? Sun Editor in Chief Patricia Graham? Province Editor Wayne Moriarty? Times Colonist Publisher Bob McKenzie? Political columnists Vaughn Palmer or Keith Baldrey?

There is a great piece by newly retired LA Times writer Mark Heisler at Truthdig. Titled Confessions of a Dead Tribune, it includes this, which describes the bargains still-employed journalists make to survive in today's mainstream media,

"Of course, I’ll miss it. At least, I’ll miss the guys and dolls in the department and being “Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times.”

"Otherwise, it was harder to work there daily, as if Someone Up There was saying, “You’re lucky you’re still here—and here’s what else you’ll have to do to stay.”

"Of course, that Someone Up There had Someone Even Higher, telling him the same thing.

"Unfortunately, compromising what we did was so entrenched as a way of life, we barely remembered things were ever different, while learning we would be making new, bigger compromises.

"(Zell and the New Wave had a term for remembering, or clinging to what we had been taught were the principles underlying everything we did: “journalistic arrogance.”)

Heisler does not say it but his is a sad ending, faced by so many formerly fine journalists.

4 comments:

Wonderful post Norm..The first thought I had was the recent reporting by Alex G Tsakumis.

I have great respect for him as a journalist. He is willing to take great risks to bring us the real truth, not spin.. he stands alone right now with the release of documents from the sale of BC Rail.

Not one of the MSM has the courage to post his documents..I have written them all...only two reporters got back to me. The biggest names and ego's didn't even take the time to pen me a brief note....very sad indeed.

The amount of stress that has followed Alex since the discovery of these documents is incredible..

Alex is also a family man, but he took the risk, for us.. he feels it is our right to know.

To me that is the work of a great reporter.

I admire your blog and your musings Norm.. and I'm very happy to see that you are back, and feeling better.

Out of respect to you sir. I have not left a link to AGT's blog...that is a decision I will leave up to you.

Likewise.Norm you,Alex,Laila,and Ian are following the I.F.Stone tradition.Keep it up. You guys are performing a vital public service.If the sun,the province and the rest of the msm did half the the job you're doing we would've dumped this arrogant,corrupt,incompetent government a long time ago.

Thanks but remember, every reader's voice (almost) can be heard at these sites too. The MSM is an echo chamber for its corporate interests. These non-commercial sites in the alternative media are there in an effort to serve the public interest.

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I write and edit this blog alone. I favour public education, efficient social programs, democratic trade unionism, free competitive markets and encouragement of owner-operated businesses. I believe journalists and public and quasi-public servants should be subject to stringent measures of accountability and conflict prevention.

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